About Me

When not nosing, tasting, drinking and reading about malt whisky, I own one of Israel's premiere boutique coaching practices, specializing in small businesses and executive teams.
Trained in the law, I was an international law attorney and took part in Israel's peace negotiations with the Palestinians, as well as representing my country at the UN for parts of the negotiations on the implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Later I was appointed to the military bench.
My favorite thing, other than whisky, is teaching.
You can contact me through the social media buttons above or by email: michael(at)maltandoak.com, replacing the (at) with an @.

Statement of Integrity and Guidelines

Malt and Oak is an independent whisky blog, offering my own views, opinions and news from the world of malt whisky.
These are my guidelines:

1. All whisky reviews published are of whiskies I have personally tasted and noted. Guest bloggers only write about their own personal tastings.

2. With the exception of official whisky samples, I accept no consideration whatsoever from any distillery, bottler, distributor, drink company or store for my opinions.

3. I maintain strict impartiality and objectivity in tasting all whiskies, not least when tasting official samples. Any review of official whisky samples sent to me will be so noted in the post.

4. I will accept invitations to tastings, events and official visits, and full disclosure will be made on any tasting notes and articles resulting from these events or visits.

5. Any sample received over 30 ml in volume is shared with fellow whisky bloggers. In any event, no sample larger than 100 ml will be accepted.

6. No advertisements promoting specific brands will be accepted.

7. I will answer any inquiry by my readers as quickly and as fully as possible.

8. Should I give a link purchase the reviewed whisky, it will be given free of any commercial interest. The link given will always point to cheapest selling price I found on the web. No commission is paid, nor any other consideration given, for such link.

9. As of July 2017, I serve as Douglas Laing’s Israel brand ambassasdor. As such, I will obviously not be posting reviews of Douglas Laing products.

Posts Tagged “Sherry”

The Whisky Show 2018 marks the 10th anniversary of the iconic London event. The theme of this year’s Show was ‘The Future of Whisky’, and if there’s one definitive glimpse I can offer you on the future of whisky, it’s this: Expensive. (At least until the next whisky loch, slowly distilling as we speak). In the…

Burn Stewart Distillers is one of the only multi distillery owning companies that I can truly say that I have a real affinity for each of the four brands in the portfolio, Bunnahabhain, Tobermory, Ledaig and Deanston. In fact, I have multiple bottles from each of their distilleries in my cabinet, and coming to think…

At the Whisky Show, I got to taste most of the 2018 Special Releases. The Show merits its own report, and I’ll be reviewing a few of the Special Releases. Oban, however, has a special place in my heart. Oban is an almost hidden gem in the Diageo portfolio. Indeed, the 14 is fairly well…

GlenDronach single casks are always fun to try, especially those that are bottled for specific shops. Those tend to be well selected, and with the 1995 GlenDronach casks, that’s a good thing, since as the distillery was nearing being mothballed, the casks were spottier. This one, however, is definitely not! It is, however, a bit…

Aberlour have basically doubled the price on one of our malthead staple expressions, the A’bunadh. Naturally, we’re looking for a replacement, and here pops up a new expression, that seems to be winking toward our demographic. It’s 48% ABV, non colored and non chill filtered. Our first thought is “Yay! this replaces the A’bunadh”. We…